Faye didn't know why she had agreed to come. She hated scenes and there was bound to be one, how could there not be? Lia had invited her and Chole to her house, well her nasty neighbor's house, to watch her ex-fiancé get married in the very public square also in front of her house. When Lia had told her about it she had been shocked and thought there had been a mistake, but then on second thought it was just the type of stunt Lia's ex, Chance Lennox, would pull.
Either way, Faye didn't want to spend a lonely Saturday at her house. There had been too many of those lately, and the last thing she needed was to spend time alone. When she was alone her mind kept going back to her one and only conversation with Dr. DeGraff, and she kept trying to read more into it than was there. She also kept remembering the sound of his laugh and the sight of his smile.
She was most definitely smitten with the man. She felt like a gauche school girl waiting to get a peek at her crush. Just like every other woman who met him.
Dr. DeGraff had done his first round at the hospital and all the nurses were already crazy for him. There hadn't been such a stir about a doctor since before Dr. Sam Evers, the heart surgeon, had gotten married a few years previous. It had caused a mild depression among the ranks of the nurses to know that one of their heroes was no longer single.
Faye had always liked Dr. Evers, but she had never had a crush on him or thought about him romantically, even though he was rich and handsome, he had never interested her in that way. However, Dr. DeGraff was another matter, but she would keep that little fact to herself.
"Why are we doing this?" Chloe asked reaching for the binoculars, pulling Faye away from her thoughts about Dr. DeGraff.
Lia fell into the lawn chair behind her. "Because I want to make him nervous." Lia reached for a beer with a smirk.
"Aren't you only making him think that you miss him, that you want him back. That's what I would think if I was as self-absorbed as he is. What I want to know is why his bride would let him have his wedding here." Faye took a sip of her beer, reaching to take the binoculars from Chloe, voicing her thoughts aloud. She realized that she was being more direct than she normally was, but she wasn't a drinker and the beer she was drinking was having a serious effect on her filter.
"What time does it start?" Chloe asked.
"I don't know, I wasn't invited." Lia took a long gulp of her beer, frowning as her thoughts grew heavy.
"Poor Girl!" Faye said shaking her head and thinking of the bride, River, who was a fellow nurse at the hospital, before her mind bounced to something else. "How did you get Mr. Personality to let you use his porch? Or is he going to burst out here any minute screaming at us?" Faye was curious to meet Lia's new neighbor and see if he was as handsome as Chloe said he was. Maybe he would take her mind off the good doctor.
"I asked this morning." Lia said, still frowning.
"And for the record, I said it was a bad idea," a tall dark man with a shaggy beard said from the doorway behind them. He was leaning against the doorjamb listening to their conversation. Faye stared openly at him. Even with the beard, one could see that he was handsome and very well built, but he didn't have a scar and his eyes weren't grey.
Faye gave a silent sigh as she took another gulp of her beer. He wasn't going to take her mind off the good doctor.
"Would you stop sneaking up on me like that, it's rude!" Lia said, settling back into her seat, pretending that she wasn't affected by him, but Faye could tell she was because her cheeks had turned a deeper shade of red.
"You're right, I'm so sorry I walked onto my own front porch," the man said, reaching for a beer.
Faye could see that Lia thought about objecting to his taking a beer, and he must have sensed it because he twisted the cap off watching her, daring her to say something. Faye was fascinated by the atmosphere that was between them. There were sparks flying.
Not like her and the good doctor. Nope, no sparks there, only awkward silences.
Lia huffed, turning her attention back to the square. "Ben, these are my friends, Faye Brantley, and Chloe Lockwood, we all work at the hospital." She waved her hand between them all.
Faye and Chloe looked at him as if waiting for his head to start spinning, so he gave his most charming grin and they relaxed.
"I don't bite," he promised.
"That's not the way Lia made it sound," Faye said, and Chloe elbowed her. One beer was always too much for her, she was a lightweight.
"Well, I imagine you both know what a trial she is, of course, we've only known each other a few days, so we're still settling into our friendship." Ben took a sip of his beer; meeting Lia's eyes and more sparks flew. Faye couldn't tear her eyes away from them.
Chloe excused herself saying something about going to Lia's to use the restroom, and the others all turned their attention to the square.
"It looks as if it's starting!" Faye said, sitting up reaching for the binoculars as a dark, expensive looking car drew up to the curb and the bride got out and started the walk across the square. She looked beautiful and Faye had a moment of jealousy as she wondered if she would ever get to be a bride in white satin. It was still possible, she was only twenty-nine, by no means past her prime even if sometimes it felt like she was.
"Huck!" they heard from the edge of the porch and Faye turned to see Chloe racing towards them right behind Huck. "I'm sorry, I opened the door and he was out like a shot."
Huck stopped, looking at everyone, sniffing the air. "Huck, come!" Lia demanded. Huck didn't move, he only tilted his head as if the sound of her voice was interesting. It was probably because he could hear the terror in it. He took a step towards the edge of the porch. "You want a treat, Huck?" Lia tried to bribe him.
Faye sat up, ready to run after the dog if needed.
Ben gave a soft whistle and held the door to the house open and Huck ran through it, receiving a pat from Ben along the way, and Faye felt herself relax after the near miss. She didn't really want to chase a dog around downtown Savannah while tipsy.
Lia took a shaky breath and thanked Ben, and they were all trying to catch their breath at the near miss when they saw a flying furball race past them, toward the square. "I thought I told you to nail a board across that dog door!" Lia shouted as she raced for the steps to try to catch Huck.
Faye was slow to realize what was happening, so she didn't jump up to help, and Ben didn't move right away either as he silently watched Huck and Lia running across the street.
Faye had caught on and was about to jump up to help Lia when she called for Ben once more.
"Hold this!" he handed his beer to Faye and cleared the porch railing with an impressive show of muscle.
"He's not what I expected at all," Faye said to Chloe, sipping her beer and holding his. She was way too relaxed to be concerned by the scene that was about to happen and it made a nice change from her regular tense self. In a moment of drunk clarity, she realized that she had become an uptight spinster. It should have depressed her, but she was really too tipsy to care overly much about the thought. Maybe she would tomorrow.
Chloe grabbed the binoculars. "He's just as good looking as I remembered, did you see the way he cleared the railing?" Obviously, she wasn't concerned by Huck's great escape either.
"Yes, it was very impressive," Faye agreed with a giggle, forgetting all about her introspective thoughts as she turned her mind to Ben's muscles, which made her immediately wonder about Dr. DeGraff's muscles. He seemed lean and not overly built.
Faye and Chloe watched as the crowd had started to notice Huck, and there was a stir along with a few chuckles as he made his way to the bride and groom, but Lia and Ben stood frozen in the middle of the square. Then they looked on in stunned horror as Huck walked right up to Chance and lifted his leg, peeing all over the groom's pants before all hell broke loose.
Ben whistled for Huck, and having done what he set out to do, he trotted over to Ben with a happy smile on his face that Faye could clearly see from across the square. Maybe she should get a dog.
At Ben's whistle, everyone turned to see him, and another murmur went through the crowd as he was recognized.
Faye watched the scene get even more dramatic as Ben placed himself between Chance and Lia, and he held his hand out to catch Chance in the chest when he charged Lia. Faye desperately wanted to know what he was saying. The scene kept going as an older man dragged Chance away from the scene and then the bride, River, approached Lia.
"What do you think they're saying?" Faye asked lifting the binoculars.
Chloe shrugged, watching the scene just as avidly as Faye was.
An older couple joined them, then the older man left while Lia, Ben, River, and an older woman continued to talk. A moment later a car drew up before the square and the bride walked quickly towards it.
"She did it, she really did it!" Faye said in awed surprise. Faye felt suddenly happy that River had escaped the evil clutches of an unworthy bridegroom, and she began to clap and cheer. She was oblivious to the stares she was getting from the departing wedding guests, or the subdued Chloe next to her.
Somewhere deep down she knew she would be mortified when she remembered what she was now doing the following day, but just from the moment, she would let the alcohol give her a happy buzz and worry about it later.
It made a nice change.